William j



UNT

SAT *i* WILLIAM J. IIOLMAN," or INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

coivIPoUNn RAIL FOR RAILRoAns.

To all whom z5 may concern:

Be it known that 1, VILLIAII J. HoLMAN, of Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement on the Compound Three-Part Railroad-Bar, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, which forms part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 is a top and end view of the cap T bar or rail and side L or continuous chair rails, together with a projecting end of a securing wedge or key; Fig. 2 is a view of the T bar or cap rail with its flange or stem projecting` below the continuous chair rail and showing the arrangement of the wedge for securingthe same together.

A, Figs. 1 and 2 is the cap T bar or rail.

B Figs. 1 and 2 is the continuous chair rail of two parts.

C, Figs. 1 and 2 is the securing wedge or key, and C and C are varieties of keys that may be used.

B Fig. 2 is a view of the under side of the continuous chair rail B.

a is the flange or stem of the cap bar or T rail passing between the continuous chair rails and beneath them. is the key hole in said flange. The flange, a, of the cap rail decreases indepth from the key hole or point of 'fastening toward the point of support, giving a waved configuration to said flange, which waved portions should be so arranged that the projecting extremity or extremities of them below the under surface of the continuous chair rails come between the cross sleepers or bearings on which the entire rail when laid rests as is the case with other, single, swelled bars. To give intermediate stiffness vertically to said bar and consequently reduce the weight of the same for a given strength and admitting of the supports or bearings to it being placed farther apart, which results, the said waved portions not only effect to a large degree in this instance, enabling the tripartite rail, for a given weight and strength, to be supported on fewer or more distant bearings than it has yet been done, but `preventing the sides of the chair rails from bilging in by concussion, and securing an advantageous union or fastening for all three bars as will be presently explained.

The superiority of the compound railroad bar over the ordinary single bar is too well known to need special comment. These com pound bars are of various kinds and for such several patents have already been issued. They have been made in two parts, also in three parts. The advantages of t-he compound rail are better secured by the latter-the tripartite kind-than the former, both as regards breaking joint and in other respects, and to these well known advantages no special reference will here be made as they are incidental to the description of rail on which my invention is simply an improvement but one of considerable importance in practice. Many of these compound rails however, including those of three part construction, are defective. The tripartite rail of R. H. Middleton patented May 1853, which is simply a modification, by dividing vertically the top or cap rail, of that shown in the rejected application for patent of Cyrus Williams, June 1849, is defective inasmuch as the weight of the train in motion is borne mainly by the inner half of the divided cap rail and corresponding half of the case rail, and is defective in other respects. To this, and one of the best of the kind, the tripartite rail of B. H. Latrobe patented Sep. 1848, is greatly superior as the pressure or strain is more equally divided, and upon this form of rail my improvement is based. The usual mode of securing the three parts of this rail together is by passing a rivet or screw bolt horizontally through the upright portions of the L shaped rails which carry the cap rail on top and hold it by lips that grip a ,dovetail stem of the cap rail, or, by extending said dovetail stem farther down in between the two L rails, also hold it by said bolt, rivet, or key passing through all three bars. The making of the holes for the bolt, rivet or key, in all three bars however, which is shown likewise in the tripartite rail of Middleton above referred to, or even through two of the bars, is objectionable as, in a large number of rails, enhancing seriously the aggregate cost, and from the particularity requisite to make the holes so that in the several bars they will come in line for the passage of the key or bolt when the rail is put together, also objectionable on account of the inequality in contraction and expansion of the several bars forming the whole or rail proper and which throws the adjacent bolt holes out of line, sometimes where there is insuiiiciency of play straining the bolt and breaking it. My improvement obviates this. It only requires a bolt or key hole in the one bar of the tripartite rail to hold the three bars even more securely together thereby admitting of the freest independentexpansion or contraction of the adjacent bars; and, although there is nothing new in fastening compound rails from below, of itself, and so that the cap rail or rails may (as in the rail of R. H. Middleton before referred to) be removed andturned without of necessity shifting the supporting rail or rails; and, though there is nothing new in a key or wedge fastening, of itself, and the same is but the equivalent of a bolt, still it will be found that my invention embraces important novelty, as an improvement on the rail referred to, in the peculiar formation and extension of the stem of the cap rail relatively to the other rails or bars of L form, whereby bolt or key holes through the one bar serves to hold the three bars firmer together, the freest independent expansion or contraction, longitudinally and laterally is insured, and greater stiffness, vertically and laterally, for a given amount of metal (and lightness is to be studied in a rail) is given to the tripartite rail which, by my construction, may be supported at greater distances apart and thus the number of cross ties or sleepers be economized.

From the foregoing remarks and description given of the drawing that these advantages are obtained will be obvious, the cap T bar (A) being placed between the sidesof and supported upon the continuous L chair rails (B) and held firmly in place by the edges of the top of the T bar overlapping and holding together the sides of the chair L bars, while the tie is made at the bottom, or the union of the bars secured, by means of a wedge (C) driven through the aperture in the proj ectin g end of the waved portions of the flange or stem (a) of the cap bar below the bottoms of the L rails, thus firmly binding all together top and bottom, that is the three bars, by but one bolt hole, or series of bolt holes for the several waves, in the one bar; admitting of perfect freedom of contraction and eXpansion in each bar without strainage on the bolt or key by any slight inequality of eX- pansion or contraction in the three bars; allowing of the speedy removal, when required, of the inner bar without disturbing the others; and insuring by the waved form to the stem or flange (a) of the cap bar and its arrangement between the sides of the chair rails at sundry points to a depth below said chair rails not only increased vertical stiffness so that the rail bearings may be arranged at great distances apart but strengthening the tripartite rail laterally and preventing all possibility of the chair rails bilging in at their sides, and while the waved portions thus give strength, in the most perfect manner as regards lightness or amount of material used, the eXtension of the flange or stem at points below the chair rails gives a means the most sim-V ple, as already explained, of binding together the three bars which make up the tripartite rail.

l/Vhat I claim herein as new and useful and an improvement on the compound railvWM. J. HOLMAN. Witnesses W. E. BURR, WM. SULLIVAN. 

